Latest Journal

on 18 July 2014 at 09:15:19 MDT

So, my laptop battery has decided that 40% is essentially 0%, and I'm not getting even close to the battery life I was getting two days ago. Thanks to Linux's amazing power management, I used to be able to squeeze several days out of a single charge, but now I'm usually getting about an hour before the machine shuts off.

In addition to that, I've also been putting off getting a new AC cable. (These things don't last long, do they?) If I don't hold my mouth right when plugging this thing into my laptop, it doesn't actually charge the battery. For whatever reason, when it's plugged in and not charging, overall system performance suffers greatly. A small problem with this model laptop is that the power cable tends to slip out rather easily, so when I've got a full charge and it slips out, I have to leave it out for a few minutes so I can tell whether or not I've plugged it in properly when I plug it back in, as it won't actually charge if the battery is already full.

I'm also missing a couple of keys from the keyboard, and I need to get the CD drive replaced, but these aren't really a priority to me. Unfortunately, these are the only problems I'm currently having that are covered by my service plan, as the battery is an aftermarket extended battery, and for whatever reason the service plan doesn't actually cover the AC cable. I'm not sure if this is because the plan just doesn't cover it, or if it's because I paid for one out of pocket about a year ago so I could have it rush delivered. I'm also hesitant to call up Dell because they always try to replace my backlit keyboard with a non-backlit keyboard. I absolutely need this backlit keyboard. Furthermore, the last technician they sent clearly did not know what he was doing, and watching him root around in my laptop gave me quite the anxiety attack.

Barring any miracles or drastic changes to my budget, this likely means I won't be able to afford MFM this year. I'm terribly sorry to anyone who was hoping to meet up with me in Olive Branch, but it looks like it will have to wait yet another year. My budget is much tighter than I'm used to at the moment, as I'm having to pay for summer courses, and I may have lost some of my scholarships for the fall semester.

TLDR: It looks like I'm not going to be able to afford MFM this year, as I need to replace a couple of expensive components on my laptop that are not covered by my service plan.